1. Field of Invention
The present invention relates to a fan holder, and more particularly, to a tool-less fan holder.
2. Related Art
Fans are required in a computer, for generating cooling airflow to dissipate the heat generated by electronic components of the computer.
The conventional approach for fixing a fan is fixing the fan on a case of a computer with a plurality of screws or other screwing members. As for a computer system only equipped with one or two fans, such an approach may satisfy the requirement for fixing fans. However, as for a large-scale computer system, such as a server, multiple fans are required to be assembled, and each fan has to be fixed by several screws. Such an approach is time consuming to deal with the screws, and a tool, such as a screw driver, is required to deal with the screws.
In order to save the time of using a tool to deal with the screws, many tool-less fan holders have been provided. For example, in U.S. Pat. No. 6,587,342, a snap coupling device is provided to replace the screws or the screwing members, so as to achieve quick assembly/disassembly of the fan.
However, no matter a fan is fixed in a fan holder by means of snap coupling or the fan holder is fixed to the case by means of snap coupling, the following defects still exist. The latches of the fan holder are engaged into the case of the computer or engaged with the fan through elastic deformation. When the rigidity of the latch is relative high, the snap coupling force will be increased, but the fan or the holder is getting harder to be disassembled and even the latch might be broken or damaged during the disassembly. When the rigidity of the latch is relative low, the snap coupling force is insufficient, with a result that the fan and the fan holder may easily jiggle and even fall off. Therefore, it has become an issue to be solved on how to hold the fan securely and meanwhile make the fan holder easy to be operated.